Calling Thomas Dolby - Calling Thomas Dolby

Are You Receiving Me?
That's a rhetorical question, based on one of his lyric lines, and nobody would be more surprised than Conrad were we to receive a reply from Ol' TMDR (Thomas Morgan Dolby Robertson).
     I utilise Ol' Tom because 1) His album "The Golden Age Of Wireless" is pretty damn terrific, and 99% of musicians can only dream of a debut as strong as that, and 2) There is a track called "Radio Silence" upon it which is peculiarly appropriate for this post.

Ol' Tom, busy being boffin-ish

     For yes!  We are back to that pamphlet of the Desert War, and this time - what's that?  No, I've been racingly swift and spare in my narrative analysis and description: you could so easily be reading a 5,000 word monograph about one of fifteen different subjects*.
     Anyway, if I may continue?  Thank you so much!  Really.
     Let us have an appropriate photograph.  Art?

An M3 honey loads up with 4 star

     For today we are going to be covering something the pamphlet studiously avoided: signals intelligence, often shorted to "Sig Int".  This refers to the time-honoured expedient of listening to the airwaves to see what information you can sieve out of the electronic melange.  It turns out this is an awful lot, if people are careless.  Art?

A Bedford Radio truck in quite - er - notable camouflage

     One conjectures that the pamphlet avoids any mention of the subject as otherwise it might incline enquiring minds to ponder on what Perfidious Albion knew of Teuton and Italian radio messaging, which leads inevitably to Enigma.  Italian Sig Int wasn't particularly effective; what changed matters in North Africa was the arrival of the Afrika Korp's radio intercept unit, the 621st Company under a Leutnant Seebohm, if my memory serves.  That, and the fact that the 8th Army's radio security was abysmal; senior officers communicating by radio thought that they could fool the bally Hun by using Quorn Hunt slang.  They couldn't.  Rommel frequently got decrypted radio intercepts on his desk before the British commanders they were intended for.

Teuton sightseers with transport

     Combined with code and cipher specialists, the 621st was able to provide Ol' Erwin with up-to-the-minute information on their foes, which is a more realistic explanation of how he was able to dominate the battlefield instead of all that "fingertip feel" shizzle put out as propaganda and deceit both.
     Then there was that unwitting betrayer, South Canadian Colonel Fellers - but that's another lengthy story for another day ...      The reason all sides in the desert used radio is because telephones, with their wire systems, could only be used for very short distances, or in places like Tobruk, when the formations involved could be hundreds of miles apart.  There's some malicious enjoyment to be had in calculating the enormous tonnage of telephone wiring needed if, by magic, radio suddenly stopped working.

The arena in question

     Okay, motley, I've just brewed a pot of tea.  Would you like jam on your crumpets?

Woefully Wet Weather
As mentioned on Facebook today, the CEASELESS EVER-POUNDING RAINS have returned, lending an air of normality to the Grate British Summer. 
     Today I arrived earlier than usual in the office, thanks to the 24 bus driver hitting speeds of 45 m.p.h. on wet roads in the dark and with heavy rain to boot.  Perhaps pining for his porridge in the depot canteen?
     What Your Humble Scribe is pondering upon is the matter of Toddbrook Reservoir; the Fire Brigade had succeeded in lowering water levels by about ten yards by Wednesday, with residents of Whaley Bridge being allowed back home.  Hooray!

Progress to date

     This is how far the water levels have been drained to, done by dint of endless pumping of hundreds of thousands of tons of water. 
     The thing is - bad weather, storms and heavy rain have arrived again in the North West.  True, the reservoir has been pumped down to only (!) 250,000 tons of water, but the catchment area for this body of water amounts to 6 square miles.  Imagine all that land, thoroughly saturated with water, shrugging off what falls upon it, into the network that supplies the reservoir.  We shall see what happens over the weekend; maybe Whaley Bridge residents need to lay in supplies of food, water and thick paperback novels, just in case.
                                               And lots and lots of these

Talking Of Storms -
That hilarious raconteur Devin Stone, whom you might (or might not) know as the Youtuber "Legal Eagle", has turned his finely-honed legal brain upon what you might dismiss as "Bampot Culture".  Namely, those bafoons who have stated on social media that they will be storming Area 51 to free the alien slaves/release the deadly alien invaders/share a naughty cigarette or two with Paul and his mates.  Art?
          
                                                         PAUL SIMON!
     Sorry, just couldn't resist.
     Devin, as we here at BOOJUM! warned the Social Justice Weenies, pointed out the practical difficulties of getting anywhere near Area 51.  The nearest town is a clutch of houses many miles away, with only a dirt track leading towards Nellis AFB (the site's official title).  There are lots of warning signs and fences before you reach the actual site, and, as we mentioned before, there are the Camo Guys, who have in the past indeed used lethal force on trespassers. 

GUYS!  IN CAMO!

     Whilst they may not Terminate With Extreme Prejudice every trespasser, they will certainly detain you, call the police and have you arrested and detained at the very least.  A foolish BBC camera crew who tried to sneak through the back gate were held at gunpoint for 3 hours and had to endure interrogation by the FBI.

Not known for a sense of humour.**

     Devin also rather mischievously asked an ex-Marine artillery officer friend where all those many thousands of detainees would be held.
     "They wouldn't be held anywhere," deadpanned the ex-major, " - because they'd be dead."
     It's doubtful things would escalate to that level.  The planned "Storm" isn't until 20/09/2019, so the Air Force is stockpiling non-lethal weapons as we speak.

E.G.

     Social Justice Weebles, you have been warned!***

And there we shall have to leave it, as Real Life Intervenes.  Cheerio!


*  Yeah, I bet that single 5,000 monograph on "Forbidden Planet" doesn't seem so unbearable now, eh?
**  Note the CORRECT spelling

**  I bet no more than a couple of hundred turn up.